[rescue] An interesting sound

[Kevin Loch]

Make backups, and if the drive is used only for easially
replacable/restoreable
data (i.e. solaris boot drive with no data) run it until it fails.
I would not run a drive like that if it had actual data, even if I
backed
it up regularly.  The reason?  Backups occasionally fail and backup
procedures fail often.

KL

Kurt Huhn wrote:
> 
> > One of my PC's on my desk at work (the Solaris 8 box) has started making
> > strange sounds from the hard disk I believe.  It was silent then out of
> > nowhere I hear light tiny sounds that remind me of a circular saw
> > contacting something it's cutting... not loud or anything... it happens
> > every now and then fading in and out.  I telnetted in and its still
> > happily running.  It's a test machine anyways and I haven't done anything
> > with it for the 22 days it has been up so far.  HD failing?
> >
> 
> What you're hearing is chatter from the bearings that support the spindle,
> upon which the platters are mounted.  This *sometimes* means that the
> bearings *might* fail.  I've seen drives that operate just fine for a couple
> years after they start to make this noise - and I've seen others that will
> run fine, until the drive spins down, then it refuses to spin up.
> 
> Just because a drive makes this noise doesn't mean it's going to fail - but
> sometimes this is indicative of a pending failure of these bearings.
> 
> What does one do?  I guess it all depends on your comfort level.  Replace
> the drive, or not.  However, if I were you, I would make sure you've got
> importnat data being backed up regularly in the even thtat the drive fails.
> Personally, I'll make regular backups and replace the drive if/when it
> fails.
> 
> Kurt
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